Assignment

Conduct in-depth research on the topic using, at least, two primary sources, outside of the course textbook, as references. Compose your Case Study assignment deliverable as a scholarly paper. Use Microsoft Word® to compose your data and include a Title Page, Header, in-text citations (as appropriate), and a Reference Table. The body of the paper should be two-three pages of double-spaced text in length.

Use APA Style to cite and reference any data "borrowed" from sources. Your composition needs to be grammatically sound and free of spelling errors. Use terminology from the reference sources and your textbook. Unless you are a subject matter expert on the topic, based on your degrees, certifications or "on the job training," do not submit data obtained only from personal experience.

Case Study

We live in a time when online shopping has become a widely-used method for acquiring goods and services. Many shoppers today seek out information browsing the Internet, either to conduct research as a preamble to visiting a brick and mortar store, or to directly purchase a product or order a service. As we studied in a previous chapter, search engine optimization (SEO) is a very important factor if an enterprise wishes to succeed in reaching online customers effectively. NIKE, Inc., one of the most successful businesses in its field, had not done well in search engine rankings a few years ago, despite allocating a large amount of capital to that endeavor. Even with its highly innovative staff, Nike ultimately had to seek outside help to come up with a better SEO solution.

Written Assignment: Find a company or other entity with an Internet website that has very low "eye candy" appeal, font sizes that are too small or barely readable, or pages that seem to crawl at a snail's pace when loading. Describe the issues and offer solutions that might enhance the website. Contrast this company's presence with that of another, describing specific areas where one shines and the other lacks. Be sure to discuss the "backend" where web servers and networking capability might be an issue. Is the reason for slow throughput to your system an inadequate or poorly designed network infrastructure on their end? What could the enterprise do to "fix" the issues? Let us see what you can come up with to help the company improve its Internet footprint.